Windows Explorer will not open.

I cannot open windows explorer at all. My computer will not open. IE will not open. Control Panel ETC. I have scanned for virus. McAfee with the latest updates. I am running Win2k sp4. I have reinstalled IE 6 to no avail. Need a solution that does not require a complete reload.

I've seen something like this recently. I eventually determined that the system had a virus and part of the virus was explorer.exe. What I'd suggest you do is kill the explorer.exe task in task manager and run cmd.exe. Then go in to the windows (or winnt) directory and delete explorer.exe. You can then run the command "sfc /scannow" without the quotes of course to restore the original explorer.exe from the windows cd (it'll take a little while and you'll definitely need the windows install cd or to do this). While you're at it I'd check the winnt\system32\dllcache folder, deleting any copies of explorer.exe you find there. When you've done this you should check your task manager for some oddly named tasks running there and end task on them. I can't tell you what their named because each installation of the virus uses randomly generated names....in fact if you kill these tasks with explorer.exe running then explorer.exe will rename them and run them again right away. Anyway go through your task list with a fine toothed comb and kill anything that shouldn't be running, then of course you've got to figure out a way to get your antivirus software running again and go through your startup config deleting anything that runs the virus at your next startup. It's not pretty I know but it'll work.

I hope this is of help to you; it has helped others who had 'similar' intrusions. Be sure that you have updated definition files for any/all applications you use to scan for virus/trojan/worm as well as for spyware, browser hijacking, malicious BHOs, etc.